


The In-Between

by MadisonRoseNolus



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Additional universes, Badass Toph Beifong, Basically I'm ignoring the Legend of Korra for this, Eventual Romance, Eventually Tokka, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Future, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, It's a heck of a journey, Kataang - Freeform, Kinda, Original Character(s), Post final war, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Sorry Not Sorry, Sort Of, The Spirit World, This is pretty much an adventure between Toph and Sokka, Tokka - Freeform, Toph can see, and blood, and the in-between, but not excessively, it has a plot purpose I promise, like seriously we'll see, maybe smut, okay a lot of injuries, probably some injuries, there will be romance eventually, there's death, there's the regular world, this is as slow as I can do, yup
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2020-06-02 03:09:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19432708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadisonRoseNolus/pseuds/MadisonRoseNolus
Summary: It's been several years since the final war to bring peace back to the world. The gaang has all gone their separate ways, although some of them still intersect, but Toph has found herself in a completely new world, and left with some life changing differences. Now she  must decipher what it means to be a new breed of bender, and how she can stop others from falling victim to the same evil that changed her. Her world is forever changed, and so is the gaang's when they reunite, will they be able to face this brave new world together?





	1. Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my first fanfics, usually they don't make it past the planning stage, but I really do like this one. Please bare with me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, there's only so much spellcheck can do. And enjoy! If there's enough interest in this story I'll keep posting more chapters instead of burying it within the depths of my laptop...

The sunlight slanted in over Sokka’s eyes, as he opened them slowly. Squinting at the figure that was laying next to him, he felt his lips curve up into a grin as the sleep fog in his brain started to dissipate. The figure shifted turning to face him, eyes just starting to open.  
“Good morning Suki.” He whispered still smiling, admiring the way her face was relaxed in the early morning light.  
“You’re cheerful for someone who slept for maybe two hours last night.” She said as the edges of her lips quirked up, the sunlight painted the curves of his skin in a way that made him look almost a teenager again, washing away the lines of worry that had come with growing up. At 21 Sokka had accomplished more than most, but Suki was the same way, leading the Kyoshi warriors with pride and valor.

  
“I’ve had years of practice.” he smirked, tossing an arm up to gently brush back the hair framing her face. It was true, he’d only logged about 2 hours of sleep the night before. Himself and Suki, as well as Aang and Katara had been traveling through several small Fire Nation villages over the past few weeks, they were taking a much needed vacation under the guise of a scenic route to reach the capitol where Zuko and Mai’s wedding was to take place in a dwindling number of days.

They’d rolled in extremely late the previous night to a small village lodge, they’d meant to arrive earlier but an unusual storm had swept through their path, hindering the speed of their travels. Overall the trip had been a relaxing break for the group, Katara and Aang were engaged now, and had begun the process of planning their own future wedding. Sokka had yet to make any sort of permanent proposal to Suki though, he’d considered it before but hadn’t been able to work out the logistics with her constant traveling with the Kyoshi warriors. To be honest, he’d really contemplated whether or not Suki would even want to get married, she appeared to be happy just like they were, dancing around the subject of a solidified relationship in the eyes of the law.  
“I guess we should get out of bed, go down to breakfast.”  
“Or we could just stay here all day.” Sokka pulled Suki to his chest, pressing his lips to her temple, and then her nose, eventually finding their way to her lips. She could feel him smiling in the kiss, it thrilled her that one person could feel so much love for another.

They stayed like that for a while, living through the passion that flared between them, but sure enough, like clockwork, there was a knock at their door. It was Aang, wanting to know if they were awake and letting them know that he and Katara were going down to the small cafe attached to the lodge for breakfast.  
Rather unwillingly, Sokka and Suki detached themselves from each other, and prepared for the day.

* * *

Toph opened her eyes to what had become a usual glow that sent slates of light through her window. She used to open her eyes and panic, but now it had become routine. Her site hadn’t been brought back all at once, first colours had begun to flash before her, and then shapes that began to meld into the world around her. None of it had been achieved willingly either, and with the return of her site had come the thievery of her earth bending. All of this was thanks to a man named Ko, he did not live within this realm of existence, nor did he hold any power here. Where Ko did hold power, he had kept Toph as prisoner for a lengthy amount of time that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, as the flow of time existed differently between where she was and where Ko had been.

  
She’d thought his original intentions had just been to cause her pain, and that she’d simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was about a year after the final war with the Fire Nation, Toph had found herself bored, simply teaching earthbending to others just wasn’t exciting when it wasn’t to defeat a deadly opponent. Aang was taking his position as official Avatar very seriously, and Katara was intent on clinging to his side to help him. Zuko had of course, returned to the Fire Nation with Mai, and Sokka had returned to the water tribe with Suki in tow before she planned to return as head of the Kyoshi warriors. Toph had found herself rather alone, and although Sokka had offered for her to join him and Suki, she’d swiftly rejected it, as being stuck with someone she had a confusing set of emotions for and the person he was in love with, didn’t sound enticing.

  
The loneliness that she’d found a familiarity in had quickly returned, and although she knew that each of them were her family, she couldn’t help but feel excluded in a way that she’d brought upon herself. So she’d done what she had in the past, she left. Took off one night and headed in a new direction. She hadn’t gone very far before she ran into trouble, being the best earth bender to live, Toph had been confident that she could take on anything the known world had to throw at her, and she was right. What she could not handle however, was stumbling into a trap set up by someone not from this world. Ko’s trap. From her understanding later on, he’d been watching her for some time before he’d laid a trap to catch her. Since Ko held near to no power in the world Toph lived in, he had set a sort of portal into his own world, undetectable to someone who saw only what touched the earth.

  
Toph had quite literally stumbled into another world, the vast lands that lay between her world, and the spirit world. The in-between was what Ko had called it. He was from the spirit world, a lowly spirit from what she could tell, he’d been pushed to exist in the in-between instead. The in-between itself acted as a sort of chanel for wandering spirits and creatures alike, it was like a living creature in its own right, a fact that had caused Toph a great amount of pain when trying to see through her earth bending. It was as if the ground breathed, and she couldn’t grasp any solidity in it. Another aspect of the in-between that she swiftly discovered was that bending of the four elements did not work. Every fear she’d felt as a child of being left as the poor helpless blind girl was coming true, she could not see and she could not fight, and for the first time in a long time she felt fear grip her, only this time there was no one to relieve it.

  
Ko had kept her within the keep of his damp dark castle, it was only when she had begun her escape that she discovered the castle to be underwater, the sea of souls was what it had been called.

  
Having site given to her had been one of the most horrifying experiences of her life, it had been painful and scary, and she’d gone through it alone, at 14 years of age she’d experience more pain than most would in their lifetime. Having her earth bending ripped from the fibres of her being had been even more painful, Ko used the magic he possessed to strip her of everything that made her, her. He’d said from the moment she’d landed in his clutch that he intended to begin his experiment on a blank slate, she didn’t understand at first, but the longer she spent there, the more she understood. He took away so much from her, but he could not take what was within her mind, her friends, her family, although that never seemed to hinder him.

In the end, he had achieved what he’d wanted with her. His experiment had been to create a type of manufactured avatar, a bender who did not bend the elements but the matter between them, a matter he called myst. He had some grand plan where he’d make an entire army of manufactured avatars, to what end Toph had never had an interest in finding out.

  
The moment Ko had succeeded in forcing her to use myst bending for the first time, after tireless hours of causing her pain and using his own power to twist and pull from her what he wanted, she’d done it. She had knocked him off his feet by twisting the space around him, and he rather happily had jumped back up, wagging his long white beard as he muttered about how clever he was. It was in that moment she’d begun to plot her escape, it hadn’t seemed possible before, but she was getting more familiar with experiencing the world through a visual sense, and now there was a hope of using bending to manipulate her way out.

Toph shivered as she shut her eyes and the face of the first person she ever saw swam before her, Ko. His skin had looked like what wrinkled leather felt like, and his beard looked like what the moss that hung from trees felt like, it had always made good kindling.

  
She rolled her eyes at her own feelings, whenever she thought of Ko, which was most mornings, it was accompanied by fear. She hated that, and despite her best efforts to snub it out, she just couldn’t quite manage.

  
A light tap at her door brought her to her senses. It was Sata, the elderly woman who ran the lodge. She came by every morning to make sure Toph was awake and ready to go to the cafe and work. Toph had a lot to owe to Sata, Sata had been the one who’d found her facedown in the forest outside of the village, unconscious and bleeding. She’d brought her back to the lodge and had bandaged her wounds and given her a warm bed and food. She didn’t question what Toph had been through, and Toph had never spoken about it to her, she simply adopted the new life that Sata offered her, one of safe existence.

  
She stayed there, at the lodge and worked at the cafe with Sata, and her 4 year old grandson Kitsu, going by the name Tia and giving a false backstory of being born in the fire nation, now an orphan from the war. She thought it almost comical sometimes, how she’d been trying to escape from boredom and loneliness, and now found herself surrounded by just that. She’d considered at times reaching out to one of the gaang, but she couldn’t bring herself to involve any of them in what had happened to her.

Toph pulled herself from her bed, and over to the mirror that hung on her wall. Even though she hadn’t seen herself before Ko, she didn’t think she’d recognize herself. She knew she used to be short, and strong like most earthbenders. Built to withstand the blows of rock, she had now found herself as a tall and slender woman. She assumed the added height was just typical of growing up, and being slender was likely from Ko starving her at times as he seemed to conveniently forget that humans needed food to thrive. She had to admit, she was not pleased about losing so much muscle, and these days she hadn’t the time to try and regain it. Her hair had grown out long, and black as ink, she kept bangs to cover as much of her face as she could, trying to be invisible was her new hobby. The only part of her appearance that she found especially captivating was her eyes. They were brilliant green, and sometimes she wished they weren’t so bright, they drew in attention that she so terribly wanted to avoid.

  
Toph threw on her typical cafe uniform, tied her hair back and left to work. She passed through the hallway, and into the cafe through the back doors. It was empty, just as one would expect at this hour, well almost empty. She spotted Kitsu beneath a table playing with a doll she’d found in a market for his birthday.  
“Tia!” he howled in joy, every morning he greeted her the same. Thrilled and with a rushing hug. His chubby toddler arms could barely reach around her legs, as she patted him on the head.  
“Hey little lemur.” She chirped back, Kitsu was one of the few happy spots she had in her life, and he made serving ungrateful people in and out every day a little more bearable. She returned to behind the counter, and began setting out everything needed for breakfast.


	2. The Faceless Men

The cafe door swung open, and the small bell that Toph had hung above it tinkled. It was still too early for customers as far as she thought, but they were technically open. She was there, and the cook was in the back. She hadn’t even bothered to look up, just gathered the menus from behind the counter as the party took seats in the back of the cafe. She glanced up just as she was rounding the corner of the counter, two men and two women sat at a large table. Two of them looked related, and they appeared to both be apart of a couple. Must be nice, she thought, to have someone to care about you like that.

  
She’d nearly reached the table when she heard the man of the two who looked related speak. She hadn’t quite caught what he’d said, but the sound of the voice resonated in her head. She dropped the menus right then and there, quickly crouching to pick them up although she found it a struggle to concentrate as her mind could only shout one thing, Sokka?!

  
Toph tried to concentrate on something else than sound, she stared at every speck of dirt she could find on the floor that mingled with the menus she rushed to collect. Anything to try and calm herself from hearing what she thought she was hearing.

  
“Are you okay?” rang out a voice that she could match as Aang. She stood for a moment breathless. She’d never actually seen any of their faces before, and this was it. Probably her only chance at seeing them really. Katara, Aang, Sokka, and who she assumed was Suki despite not hearing her speak yet. She felt a flush of colour come to her face as familiar pricks of emotions nibbled at her mind, especially when her eyes had settled on Sokka.

  
“S-sorry, I’m fine, it’s just early that’s all.” she managed to get out, as she dropped the menus in the middle of the table. Proper service be damned, as much as she found some joy in seeing them, they did not recognize her and it had to stay that way. She didn’t fancy explaining to anyone why she could see, and how she came to be what she was now.

  
Just as she turned to leave she felt a hand grip her wrist, she swiftly wrenched it free but turned to see Sokka staring at her rather wide-eyed.  
“What was your name?”  
Silence.  
“Sorry, you just, you resemble someone I haven’t seen in a long time.” it was then that Katara cut in, “You’re right, she does look a lot like Toph.”  
“Nah, I don’t see it.”  
“Aang you didn’t notice when I cut my hair short for a week. You may be the avatar sweetheart, but you are incredibly unobservant sometimes.”  
“Tia, my name is Tia.” Toph falsely smiled, Sokka had grown perceptive over the years. He’d be about 21 now she thought, yes that’s right, 21, because I’m 18.  
“What is a Toph?” She questioned, maybe if she played dumb Sokka would stop staring at her like he was attempting to read her.  
“Hah, that’s a good question. She was an old friend, she sort of vanished a while ago, an earthbender.” The reply was from Katara, Sokka still had his eyes glued to her face, and Aang was glancing at the menu. Toph dared a glance at Suki who was watching Sokka intently, she looked almost worried.  
“An earthbender? I don’t think any earthbender would like it here much. It’s far too hot, and the earth is dry and sandy at the best of times.” She was talking to much and she knew it, she could feel her cheeks get hot as she continued. She was going off of what she’d have thought when she was an earthbender, she’d have hated it here, and to be honest she did. If it weren’t for Sata’s hospitality she’d have left a long time ago.

  
Sokka finally cracked a smile and tore his eyes from Toph, “You’re right, she would have hated it here.” as soon as he’d said this Suki’s face relaxed.  
Toph turned on her heel and walked straight through the back door to the kitchen. She reached a hand up to cup her face, trying to get some of the heat to ebb away, but instead she found wetness. Tears had begun to accumulate at her eyes and trickle down her face, and she hadn’t even noticed. She felt a flare of anger, but snubbed it out as she thought about how she was feeling so many emotions she had long since thought gone. Sokka, Aang, and Katara. Her family. They were here, her old life was nearly palpable, but it was impossible to get back. She knew that, yet her mind wandered. They all looked so happy though, could she really disrupt that for nothing other than her own benefit? They all sounded like they’d moved on, so really, she’d only be doing harm.

“What are you doing?” it was Sata, Toph had been hiding in the kitchen for the last 30 minutes, feigning a stomachache. Sata had finished taking orders from Sokka, Aang, Katara and Suki.  
“Stomachache, I already told you.”  
“I’d have bought that if I hadn’t seen you down a plate of bacon and eggs.”  
“Stomachache due to hunger?” Toph tried, but she knew Sata wasn’t going to buy it. “Please don’t make me go back out there, I embarrassed myself earlier.”  
“More to it than that I’d say.” Sata always knew, she was old and wise after all. “Go on, back out and give them their food. You don’t stay here for free.” There wasn’t much getting out of this, Toph knew it. It would be fine, she told herself. They didn’t recognize her, and why would they? She could see and looked completely different other than a slight resemblance. She’d give them their food, they’d eat, pay and leave, end of story.

Toph shuffled out of the kitchen, 4 plates of food in hand and arm. She didn’t need to look at the order sheet to tell what belonged to who, they were still the same people after the years they’d spent apart. She found her eyes settling on Sokka as she approached, he was deep in conversation with Suki, who returned his loving stare. She’d really had a liking for Sokka when they were traveling the world, she’d be lying to herself if she said she didn’t find herself feeling that same liking right now. But that was never going to happen and that she was certain of.

  
“Here you all are.” She spoke in a false joyful tone that she frequented with customers. They responded with a chorus of ‘thankyous’, and she turned to leave. That wasn’t hard at all, she thought, but she thought too soon. Sata had appeared at the doorway, a look of fear painted her features, and Toph found her feet carrying her quickly over.  
“Sata?” She spoke in a hushed tone to the woman, she looked horribly stunned. Sata gripped onto Toph’s arms, digging her nails in as she dragged her eyes up to meet hers.  
“I am so sorry, I am so sorry. You have to go, go now.” the urgency in her voice sprung fear in Toph, the same fear she experienced when she thought about her time in the castle with Ko.  
“What? Why?”  
“I am so sorry, I didn’t know, it was my job but I didn’t know.”  
“What did you do Sata?” It was then that Toph noticed the knife sitting at Sata’s hip. It was her knife, she’d stolen it from Ko and thought it had been lost at some point from the in-between and her world. It was called a ghost dagger, and it was one of the few items capable of harming spirits in this world. She suddenly found the knife being thrust into her hand with Sata shoving her forward.  
“Go, go!” their conversation had gone from quiet to garnering the attention of the gaang’s table. Sokka had stood up, and Toph noticed Suki’s absence. He was coming over and she could hear him quite clearly,  
“Everything okay over here?” He probably thought she was causing Sata harm or something along those lines. So she turned without returning an answer and rounded the counter. Toph was quick, and it helped that when Sokka took a step towards her she flipped her wrist bending the matter around him knocking him off his feet.  
“What the-” Aang and Katara were both on their feet, and Sokka was lifting himself back to standing. She rushed forward, taking note of the sudden fear crossing Kitsu’s face, who was still hiding beneath a table. She thought he was scared of her for a moment, feeling an intense pang of guilt. And then she turned her head to meet eyes with a large faceless man holding Sata by her neck. She stopped in her tracks, the door opened and in walked two more faceless men, one with Suki in tow also by her neck. Voices sprung from the faceless man who was not holding anyone.

  
“Toph Beifong, we’ve been looking for you.” She felt fear grip her heart, and a hand grip her arm.  
“What are they?” A shaky voice asked, it was Sokka. She did not reply, simply walked towards the faceless man who spoke. She lifted her hand, ghost dagger in grip and he caught her wrist roughly. She wrenched her wrist from his grip dropping the knife, crouching and spinning on her heel to avoid his reach again, catching the knife in her other hand and plunging it into his abdomen. A sound similar to a balloon letting out air filled her ears and the faceless man dissipated into a puff of smoke. Toph turned her attention to Sata, and tried to use her myst bending to knock the faceless man from Sata, but she hadn’t been practicing, and in the heat of the moment she missed. The faceless man drew a finger across Sata’s throat with blood springing forth.

  
“No!” she shouted rushing forward, she could hear a commotion behind her, as Suki had freed herself from the final faceless man’s grip and was fighting back with help. Toph gripped Sata’s shoulders as she bled out.  
“I am so sorry, I should never have told them…” her voice was weakening, and Toph couldn’t bring herself to say anything in return, just drop hot tears onto her blood streaked face. Sata was gone in an instant, Toph had never seen lifeless eyes, she’d just assumed they looked the same only unmoving. She was wrong, they looked as if the light had been sapped from them. Her mind drifted to Kitsu, he’d seen it all. Heavy pain filled her chest as she stared, this was her fault wasn’t it? The faceless men were spirit hunters, sent by Ko. Sent to capture her, to bring her back.

  
A hand gripped her arm again, pulling her up from Sata’s body. She looked up, Katara had Kitsu in her grip trying to calm his wails, Aang was standing next to Suki who looked bewildered and confused, and Sokka was staring at her, moving his mouth. No, he was speaking, what was he saying? She tried desperately to listen.  
“What’s going on? Are you really Toph? What’s happening?” He asked to much of her, she suddenly felt all of their eyes on her. This was exactly what she’d wanted to avoid, and she wouldn’t cause them anymore pain. She couldn’t. She felt Sokka’s grip tightened, as if he could read her mind that she was about to bolt, and then he loosened it. Dropping his hand limply at his side. And then she did bolt, she ran past them all and out the door, hearing several voices at once shout out her name, but she was gone into the nearby forest, leaving them to sort out what they could for themselves.


	3. The Cave

The morning light warmed her face as she stretched outside of the cave. The trees gently swayed in a morning breeze. She loved the peace of the forest, it was like the world was still asleep this early in the morning, and it gave her the chance to gather herself. A cave was what Toph now called home, and although it could be damp and dark, it also reminded her of how her life used to be. To be surrounded by the earth, shrouded in darkness, it gave her a sense of security she’d been missing since Ko had forced sight upon her. The familiarity of blindness was a welcoming feature when all the light was sapped from the cave at night.

  
She’d tried to make the cave slightly more inviting, since she could actually see at least some of the time inside of the cave, between daylight and candles, pops of colourful items did make a difference. Toph had found herself surrounded by reds and oranges in the fire nation, and she’d also found that she loved the brilliance of those colours, at one point even considering having her hair dyed to a bright rouge with crushed fire beetle paste. Instead, she’d settled for wearing brilliant red lipstick that she’d never been allowed to have while working at the cafe. She wouldn’t have dared back then anyway, brilliant red lips would appear ever so conspicuous, and Sata would never have approved.

_Sata_ , she thought of her every morning. The guilt gnawing at her consciousness, always reminding her that she had to be alone. Alone meant nobody had to get hurt, although she’d done a pretty stellar job of avoiding both the spirit hunters and Sokka over the last 3 years.

  
Immediately after the incident with Sata and the spirit hunters, Sokka had gotten Zuko to send out troops to search for her. She’d even heard that at one point, Sokka had had his own private team in search of a jade-eyed girl with raven black hair. At that news Toph had felt almost flattered, that he still cared about her even after everything that had happened. It was her brains own rude awakening to realize that he probably intended to arrest her because it had been her fault what happened in Sata’s cafe. She’d put everyone at risk just by being there, Katara, Aang, Suki, Sokka, Sata, and Kitsu. The spirit hunters had been after her, and if she’d just gone with them than Sata would still be alive, Kitsu would still have his grandmother, and Sokka could do whatever his job was supposed to be without interruptions of sightings of her.

Toph shook out her hair, yanking it’s length into two very loose red ribbons. She’d adopted a few little frilly looking accessories. She hated them, everytime she put a bow on her hair, or a frilly wristband on she could hear her 12 year old self groan in disgust. It was merely a precaution, just in case she ran into anyone who might have once known her, they would know how much she’d hated frills, and maybe take a moment to be sure their eyes aren't deceiving them, in which she could escape. Although, Toph did have a strong feeling the lipstick might be jarring enough for anyone of the gaang to see and take a moment to process.

  
With a final tug of her red hood up to cover what she could of her face, she left her cave with a small wicker basket. She spent her days now sitting on the corner of an old cobblestone street, a beggar. Although she didn’t do any actual begging, she just sat with the basket out in front of her and let whomever was feeling generous toss items into it. Sometimes she was thrown coins, other times it would be an apple, or some sort of vegetable, and more often than not people would toss garbage in her basket. She never could quite tell if it was meant to be malicious or if they were just disregarding her existence.

  
Sitting and waiting all day was very boring, but boring meant safe these days, and with the added comfort of her ghost dagger pressing against her hip from beneath the waistband of her orange shorts, Toph found herself content to just sit and wait. Sometimes, when the street she sat at became very busy she would try to practice myst bending. Attempting to alter the space around rude looking people to see if she could trip them up, or make the stumble. She once twisted the space around a man who’d tossed an applecore in her basket, so hard that he’d fallen into the adjacent water fountain. She’d nearly peed herself laughing, and although that had been the bright spot of her month, she had to promise herself to avoid drawing attention like that, for fear of the local fire nation guards discovering who she was.

Toph had been sitting at the edge of her usual street, staring at a few pebbles on the ground trying to see if she could use myst bending to mimic what her earth bending could do before, when a very scraggly looking man inched in front of her. She kept her eyes to the ground, staring at his very gnarled looking feet. He did not move, and she didn’t either, keeping her eyes down. Although she was certain she could not know this man, there was a small fear nipping at her from the back of her mind that she would look up to discover he did not have a face. Instead, she took a deep breath to gather her thoughts, and twisted her face up to see that the old man had knelt, wrapped a hand around her basket and thrown it into the fountain.

  
“What the hell?!” She snapped, biting her lip immediately after. This was not the time to lose her temper, there were people here, and they were staring. It was then that a young looking man came around the corner and threaded his arm around the old man.  
“Com’on gramps, there’s nothing over here for you.” Toph stood there, incredulous at what had just happened. It was certainly the most tame attack she’d ever faced, yet she found it the most irritating. Just as the young man pulled the elderly man around the corner she caught a few words of their conversation,  
“She looked just like how my cousin described, the one with the cabbage cart.”  
“Gramps, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  
She’d been paying too much attention to the tail end of their conversation to notice that a guard now stood before her, arm outstretched with the now very damp basket dripping in front of her.  
“Begging isn’t allowed here.” he spoke, garnering her attention.  
“I wasn’t begging, I was, uh, basket weaving.”  
“Oh really? Well selling goods without a permit is also not allowed here either.”  
“I wasn’t going to sell it.”  
“Maybe you’d like to come back with me to the guards station and explain that to them, because I’m certain I’ve seen you here everyday for the 3 months I’ve worked here.”  
“Right, and I’ve never bothered anyone.”  
“Until now.”  
“What? That old man was bothering me!” She couldn’t believe her luck, and she knew full well that this guard was just trying to pick a fight with her. As much as she wanted to make snide remarks, or just bluntly call him out, she knew that wouldn’t help her, and that if she wanted to get away without incident keeping quiet was her best option, as much as it pained her.

  
“Sorry, I’ll move on.”  
“You’d do well too.” Good. He was going to let her leave. She reached for her basket as another guard rounded the corner. He walked over next to the guard before her, paper in hand. Must be an important message if he walked out here to find the other guard, she thought. Toph had her hand wrapped around her basket, but the guard had not yet released it. Instead he watched as the other guard unrolled the paper, and glanced up at her.

  
The guard holding the basket smiled wryly, and Toph could feel the air change around her. Before she’d even really meant to both guards were on their backs and she was fleeing, the basket thrown somewhere near the fountain again. As she ran away she heard one of them yell,  
“It is her, call it in!” she knew if she ran straight to her cave right now they’d follow her. She needed to divert them somewhere so she could escape. A familiar feeling grasped around her heart, she’d had a good life while she was here. No trouble, just quiet, and now that was all about to end again. Always someone or something after her, out to try and confine her.

* * *

Toph flipped back down another alley, she’d been running for about 5 minutes now, and although she couldn’t hear much in the way of guards chasing after her, she was still intent on taking the longest way possible to get back to her cave. She liked that cave, and she wasn’t ready to give up the one place she’d felt genuinely safe in for a long time.

  
Lost in thought she flipped down another street, the edge of the village coming near. She hadn’t ever left the village this way, if she had she certainly wouldn’t ever come this way again because at the very edge was a lodge. A tiny shack of a place, with a small restaurant attached. A little boy played on the ground out front, and Toph tripped over her own feet. She fell to the ground shoulder first, and felt the rocks dig into her skin, surly puncturing it. She closed her eyes, feeling tears spring to them, but not because of the pain. Because she knew that if she opened them, she’d be back in Sata’s cafe, watching Kitsu lose his grandmother again, all because of her.

  
“Are you okay?” She snapped her head up to see the little boy had abandoned his game on the ground and was approaching her. Like a wounded animal evading it’s pursuer, Toph scrambled away from the boy who now looked just as frightened as she felt. She pushed off the ground and took off running again, feeling the trail of tears run down her face. The pain of loss and guilt hadn’t ebbed over the years, instead it seemed to have festered and gotten worse. Sometimes when she felt her heart sinking into the memory of the faceless men, she thought of Aang, and how cheerful he was even though the guilt he must have carried for disappearing all those years ago must have weighed on him. If twinkle toes was strong enough to carry it, so was she.

* * *

Toph entered the mouth of the cave walking. She’d given up running halfway through the forest, the guards weren’t following her, and she’d taken enough of a zig zag route through the trees that even she herself wasn’t sure how she’d managed to find home again. The moment she entered, she closed her eyes. It was already pretty dark in the cave since she hadn’t lit any of the candles, but she was seeking solace again in the depths of the dark. Even without her earthbending she could move around the cave relatively normally, due to the practice of knowing where everything was placed.

She walked to a set of baskets that she had stacked on a ledge next to a pile of blankets she used as a bed, some shuffling in the basket led her fingers to fall on a fluffy gauze. Her arm was still bleeding, as the rocks she’d skidded to a fall on had scraped her badly. She yanked at the ties at the top of her shirt and began to peel off the shoulder of the material now caked in blood. She tore a strip of gauze free and shifted to hold it in her mouth, when a voice spoke from the corner, causing her eyes to flash open in shock.  
“Want help with that?” came a strong voice belonging to a man. It was Sokka.


	4. Old Wounds

Toph opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. She could feel that her eyes had widened to saucers, and Sokka could confirm that. She doesn’t look any different since the last time I saw her, he thought. Aside from the vibrant lipstick and frilly looking outfit, she was the same. Same long black hair, same jade green eyes, same slender figure.

He looked different than he did 3 years ago. He’d gone from a flippant style of relaxing, to a strict looking government man. He kept his hair in the style he had since he was a teenager, only much more well-kept. But the big change was in his face, it had grown stern, and conditioned, and Toph had an unnerving suspicion that it might have been due to her. She stared at his face open-mouthed. He might have looked stern, but he was also still just as handsome. Her thoughts sped through her mind so fast she could hardly grasp one, Run! No don’t, maybe he can help you. You’ll put him in danger! You ruined his life! Run!

“Please don’t run away again Toph.” it was like he could read her mind, although it was more likely he could read the shock and flight response fighting its way onto her face. He moved towards her, and she took a few steps back knocking over one of the baskets. He reached down to her makeshift bed, picking something up although she wasn’t paying attention to what, she was more concentrated on the close proximity between them, and how she could escape. Sokka took another step towards her, face relaxed. Toph would have backed up further, but she found her back already pressing against the cave wall. Before she could flinch away he’d wrapped a rough hand around her arm, pulling her slightly towards him, staring past her head at her shoulder. It was then that she realized what he was doing, he’d picked up the gauze she’d dropped out of her mouth, and was going to try and wrap her arm and shoulder that was still bleeding.

“I can do it.” She stated flatly. Toph had thought of meeting Sokka again many times, and the scenarios she made up usually went one of two ways, this was not one of them. “Do you have any water, and a cloth? There’s still dirt in the wound.” He acted as if he hadn’t even heard her, and it took her a moment to confirm with herself that she’d actually spoken allowed. She was more stunned than anything at the ongoing encounter that she turned behind herself and grabbed a cloth handing it to Sokka, and directed him to a small jug next to her makeshift bed.

“It would be easier if you sat down.” He stated, nodding towards the pile of blankets. Toph followed his instruction, placing herself quite tensely, atop the blankets. Sokka bent over her shoulder, dabbing at the shredded skin. Toph was lost in her thoughts until she yelped out in pain. “Sorry, I’m not trying to hurt you.”

“I know.” Sokka had put down the now bloodied cloth, and turned his head to look directly at her eyes.

“I mean it Toph, I’m not trying to hurt you.” Oh, she thought. He wasn’t just talking about the wound on her shoulder. Sokka returned to bandaging her shoulder.

“Why are you here Sokka?”

“Because, I’ve been looking for you.”

“Why?” she said it as more of a demand than a question.

“I care. I wanted to know what happened to you that made you so scared of the people who became your family. I’m not interested in what you’re running from, I met them in that cafe and I don’t have questions about why you’d be running from them, they’re horrifying. But I do want to know why you reject help from those who care about you most.” Toph could hear the edge of hurt in his voice. She had thought that her disappearance would have caused some sort of pain for the gaang, but she hadn’t imagined to hear the level of ache in Sokka’s voice that she could now.

“Sokka, I-I don’t know how to give you an explanation without telling you why I’m running from those things. They’re dangerous, you saw what they did. It’s my fault they’re here, nobody else should have to pay for my mistakes, especially the people I care about.” her voice began to crack, and fresh tears began to spring up at the corners of her eyes. Great, now I’m about to cry in front of him, she thought.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened to you, not today anyways. But know that I’m not going to leave you alone. You’re family Toph, it doesn’t matter how dangerous whatever this is, you aren’t doing it alone.” He tugged at the tie he’d made to finish his bandaging job. He’d done a good job of it too, she shuddered at the thought of why he’d become so practiced in bandaging up wounds. Her brain was so muddled she was having a hard time finding the words to express her concern to him. She’d been prepared for running away, or yelling, but a calm and caring conversation? She’d not thought about that in a long time.

“So, now what?” she questioned. Although at this point Toph was near certain he wasn’t going to drag her into the authorities, she still found herself wanting a confirmation that he wasn’t going to try and bring anyone else into her messy world. Sokka rubbed the back of his neck with a slight smile when Toph turned to face him.

“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought I’d get this far. I was pretty sure you’d have run away by now, so that speech on family was all I had in mind of telling you.”

“Oh. I could still run away, if that would make things easier?” She prodded, trying to lighten the air around them slightly. It was a vain attempt, and a poorly executed one at that.

“Please don’t.” the smile dropped from Sokka’s lips. Toph didn’t need earth bending to feel the drop in his demeanor. She’d really hurt him by abandoning the gaang, and the irony was painful for her to accept. She’d hurt the ones she cared about most by trying to keep them safe.

“Sorry.” Toph shifted her gaze to the ground. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t just run away again, and she didn’t have a real reason to run right now that would let her leave without her conscious chewing at her brain. But she also couldn’t stand to just allow Sokka back into her life, if she did she’d just be putting him in extreme danger, and that wasn’t fair to him, or his family. _Problems for tomorrow_ , she felt the words run through her mind, and for once she decided to listen to them. She’d figure it out tomorrow, even if that meant running again as much as she despised the idea, knowing it would mean agony for more than just herself. But one can survive the agony of missing someone, one cannot however, survive being stabbed by a faceless man.

“Are you hungry?” Sokka smirked at her question. She was still just as blunt as she’d always been, and still didn’t like dwelling on emotional discussions.

“I’m never not.”

“There’s dried meat hung outside a few minutes walk away, I could go get some and bring it back, there’s a small oil stove over in that corner and a pot.” She gestured to the left half of the cave. “And there’s a bunch of root vegetables over there as well. Could make soup.”

“It’s a good idea, but I’ll come with you to get the dried meat.”

“Really Sokka, I can manage it on my own, it’s a scratch not a missing limb.”

“That’s not why I don’t want you to go alone.”

“Fine.” Toph spoke the word like it was dirty. She knew very well why he didn’t want to let her go alone, he was worried she’d run off, but she couldn’t help feeling like she was being coddled. A feeling she greatly detested.

* * *

“Why do you hang this stuff so far away? You can’t even see your cave from here!”

“Bears. Fire Nation bears are notoriously vicious.”

“And you stay out here alone? In a cave?” Sokka’s eyes had widened in worry. Toph could feel a mixture of annoyance and gratitude towards his line of questioning. He cared, but it also felt belittling that he thought she couldn’t take care of herself.

“I’m not helpless you know.” She spoke as she lifted the dried meat from the long stick it had been laid across, propped up between two trees.

“I know that. But I also know you either haven’t or can’t use earth bending.” At that Toph stopped moving the meat into her basket. She turned herself to face Sokka, and tried to be as level with him as she could, although he was still a great deal taller than her.

“And just what makes you think that?” There was an edge of defensiveness in her voice that Sokka heard, and he decided to take a page from Toph, and go for being blunt.

“Back in that cafe, I don’t know what you did but I know it wasn’t earth bending, Toph. And I haven’t heard anything about you earth bending anywhere, that’s why it took me so long to find you. I thought at first, I’d at least have a trail of top quality earth bending to follow but there was nothing. I know you, you’re too impulsive to just quit using bending completely.” Toph nodded, mulling over what he’d said. He was right of course, she was no longer an earth bender. Was she really that transparent?

“Those are some skills of deduction there snoozles.” Sokka felt the edges of his lips tug up at the old nickname. Despite their time apart, despite whatever Toph had gone through, she was still herself. He waited expectantly for her to continue. “Congrats on figuring that part out I guess. I can’t earth bend anymore. Pretty crap deal for the world’s best earthbender.”

“Yeah, that is…” he trailed off, rubbing at his neck again, nervously.

“Yeah, that is but,” She continued his sentence “what was that weird bending thing you did in the cafe? Right? That’s what you really want to know?” Sokka didn’t reply, just nodded his head once. “I thought you didn’t care what I’d been through.” Toph stated flatly. She wasn’t intentionally being snippy with him, but to be fair her day had gone very wrong.

“You don’t have to tell me. I just want to know that you’re okay.”

“It’s a type of manufactured bending. You can’t be born able to do it, there’s a-- a process I guess. I don’t really know what to call it.” her intention of offering an explanation was in the hopes of moving on from the subject, but no such luck befell her.

“Manufactured?”

“Yeah, you know? Man-made. Not natural.”

“I’m aware of what the term means Toph. But I wouldn’t mind if you’d elaborate on how and why you can do what you can.” His voice had changed in tone, it was more serious, harsher. Toph had a nipping feeling that he might know something about how dark what she was dealing with was, and if he hadn’t heard it from her, where had he picked up knowledge of it?

“I get the feeling you already have some idea about what it is.”

“I’ve heard of it. Only once, there was a document in one of the old archive libraries. Half of it was burned, not surprising since it was a fire nation library. Someone had clearly tried to destroy it before being interrupted. I spent some time going over the different forms of bending after what happened in the cafe, at first I thought maybe it was some sort of earthbending, but it wasn’t.”

“So you know about myst bending then.”

“That’s what it’s called?” Sokka asked, incredulously. “I only knew what it was about, bending all of the matter between the elements.”

“I’m impressed you know that much about it.”

“That’s all I know about it. I have no idea how someone becomes a myst bender.”

“You don’t want to. Here.” She picked up the basket and handed it to Sokka. As far as Toph was concerned, the conversation was over now.

“Actually I do. But I’m not here to push you for answers.” Sokka replied, picking up on Toph’s evasive tone.

“Could’ve fooled me” She mumbled.

* * *

They walked back to the cave in silence. It was a tense silence, laced with concern on both parties minds. Toph was concerned that Sokka was in to deep now, that he knew too much and he’d be trapped in her world. Sokka was concerned that Toph was all alone out here with no help, and even though she could see, the thought of the terror she must have experienced with suddenly having sight thrust upon her was not lost on him.

The sound of a snapping branch made both of them snap their heads to the left where the sound originated.

“What was that?” Sokka whispered.

“Shhhh, don’t move.” Toph whispered back. Sokka ignored her, and reached his hand back to grasp the edge of his boomerang, ready to throw it at whatever was coming through the trees. Toph shifted her weight, maneuvering herself into a position that would allow her to perform some of the more movement heavy myst bending skills she’d learned, but not practiced in a long time.

A breeze rustled through the trees, blowing Toph’s hair into her face. Just as she lifted a hand to brush it off she felt the feeling of dread poke at her heart.

“Sokka! Behind you!” She yelped, turning just in time to witness a faceless man grasp Sokka’s raised hand, forcing him to drop the boomerang. She could hear him yelp in surprise, and then herself as another faceless man from behind her took hold of her wrists.


	5. The Split in Space

Toph yelped out in pain as the faceless man’s grip burned into her skin. She tried desperately to twist out from under his rough grasp, but with no such luck. The faceless man had become annoyed at her wrenching and lifted her by her wrist, leaving her feet dangling in the air.

The pressure of his hold and her feet barely touching the ground made her stop fighting to be released. Instead she craned her head around to see what had happened to Sokka, he was still attempting to throw his free hand, in a fist, at the faceless man that had him in a hold. Toph felt her face heat up with determination with the familiar pressure of the ghost dagger she kept permanently at her hip. The faceless men might have been fast, but they were not smart. They were merely husks of something that had once existed in the known world. Empty puppets at the mercy of Ko.

Toph used her free hand to reach her waistband and yanked the dagger free, extending it into the faceless man’s stomach in a swift motion. He shattered to dust instantly, and she turned on her heel as soon as it touched the ground, throwing the knife with nimble accuracy. It plunged deeply into the other faceless man’s chest, and he too met a splintered demise.

Sokka stared at Toph, he’d known from the last time he saw her fight back in that cafe, that she was skilled, but seeing it up close again had renewed his respect for her. He was impressed, but also saddened at the thought of what she’d been through alone to gain such skill. He knew first hand that gaining the ability to fight with accuracy was not accomplished without pain.

“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” he inspected the air around them, particles of the once faceless men now being picked up in the wind left to swirl around.

“They caught me off guard.” Toph examined Sokka closely. He held a lot of worry in his face, even though he was trying to look calm. I didn’t want to drag him into this, she thought, how could I have been so stupid? To let him in like that? I’m never safe, I shouldn’t have fooled myself, or him. Toph shifted her weight to lean back for a moment. Taking in what had just happened, she didn’t have much time to go over what to do about Sokka, she knew more of the faceless men would follow shortly.

“We have to go. It won’t be safe here.” Toph stared blankly, trying to buy herself a moment more to think. “Did you hear me? Toph, we have to go.”

“You should leave while you can, go back to your family.” Her words were meant to sting, not harshly but she wanted to instill how badly she didn’t want him apart of the danger existing in her world. “Go back to Suki.”

“They’re your family too. I’m not leaving here without you.” He spoke in a certainty that Toph recognized from their youth, it was a tone he rarely used, especially with her, but when he did there was no room for negotiation. Stupid, she thought.

“What about Suki? You’ve just left her behind?” She spoke softly, Toph was aware that she might have stepped onto a touchy subject, but if there was even the slightest chance at getting him to cave in his pursuit to stay with her, she’d take it. Immediately Toph saw pain register across Sokka’s face. So they’re not together then. Her earlier suspicions had been confirmed.

“Leave her out of this.” Toph didn’t respond. She wanted to push him away, but the more dominant part of her wanted him to stay. She was so tired of being alone, exhausted of isolation her rational had worn down.

“Sokka, I-” she paused. Being kind had never been her strong suit, even with her loved ones. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

“Forget it, let’s move.” Toph had never seen Sokka quite as upset as he was now. She’d touched a nerve, and a raw one at that. But a final question did run across her mind, What happened with him and Suki?

Wordlessly Toph moved forward, Sokka following her. They moved through the forest in dim light as the sun began to set. Occasionally hearing the cracking of branches, or crunching of leaves, possibly belonging to wandering foxes, or faceless men ready to cause harm.

* * *

In the dark of the night, they pressed forward. They’d been practically silent since Toph had brought up Suki, and she was surprised that Sokka hadn’t questioned where she was leading them. Although she wasn’t sure what she would tell him if he did, she didn’t know exactly where they were headed, just that they were going away.

The forest had become a challenge in the dark, Toph could only navigate dark spaces that she knew, and Sokka was as useless as ever in the dark. The stars twinkle in the night sky, Toph had thought them pretty at first but now she felt taunted by the little spheres of light so out of reach.

Both of them remained on edge, Toph could feel the cool line of her dagger pressed at her hip, if the faceless men showed up again she wouldn’t hesitate. A loud crack followed by an even louder “Ow!” came from behind Toph, she swung herself around in the pitch black to face where she assumed Sokka was, or rather had been. Although it was hard to see, she could almost feel the empty air where his height should have reached.

Sokka, sensing panic brewing from Toph who was now above him, broke his silence. “Down here. I ran into a tree branch that was apparently taller than you.” He spoke from his now seated position on the forest floor.

“Oh. Sorry? I mean, it’s not my fault you’re so tall now, but I’m still sorry you’ve been knocked flat onto your ass by a tree.” Toph was tired, and was long over her apology to Sokka, she was back to her usual sarcastic self.

“To be honest, I don’t think I really want to get back up, we’ve been walking for hours.”

“Sokka the great emperor of the south, defender of the Avatar, warrior of the free people, taken down my some foliage.” a giggle bubbled it’s way out of Toph’s mouth, she was exhausted, and any form of filter she’d had over her thoughts and her lips movements was now gone.

“The Southern water tribe doesn’t have emperors. But if you’re going to start introducing me to people like that I’ll take it.” Sokka’s smugness came through in his voice.

“And just who would I introduce you too?”

“How about we start with whoever has sent those men after you.” And with the abruptness of Sokka’s statement, the joking tone of their encounter fell away. Toph grew quiet, and if it hadn’t been so dark Sokka would have seen her drop her head to face the ground, almost shameful.

“I’m serious Toph. Back at your home I really didn’t care what you had been through, I just wanted to bring you back to your, our family. But now I don’t think I can do that without endangering them. I need to know what I’m up against here.”

Her response was not immediate. The air clung to them both, nearly suffocating, however this journey was to continue was contingent on Toph’s next words. She tried to choose them carefully. “It’s not a who, so much as a what.” She inhaled deeply, preparing for the word vomit that was about to exit her mouth. “He is sort of like a spirit, but not with as much power. His name is Ko, and he lives in a place that I call ‘The In-Between’. It’s neither here nor there. Settled between our world and the next.”

“Keep going. What does this all have to do with you?” Sokka pressed.

“I ended up his prisoner for a while. He wants me back, I was sort of like his prototype warrior. The whole weird bending thing was his doing.”

“And the sight?” A tentative tone had taken up residence in Sokka’s voice, he knew that this was her story, and it was not a happy one.

“Also him. He’s sending his minions after me, as you know, he has been for a while.”

“So the day at the cafe. Why doesn’t he just come get you himself?”

“He’s, um, well he’s currently incapacitated.”

“What?”

“I trapped him, when I escaped. He can’t leave himself, so he’s sent his lesser experiments after us.”

“Huh. So we’re being hunted by a sort of spirit, from a different world, and his sick experiment?”

“That’s the short version, yeah.” Emptiness filled the air, the only sound belonging to the tired breaths of Toph and Sokka. Toph could feel fear nipping at the back of her mind as she pictured Ko, angrily planning out what he’d do to her if he managed to get her back in his grasp. Sokka could feel a similar fear nipping at him, only this fear was situated in his heart, as he thought of the possibility of Toph disappearing into nothingness again.

“So we’ll just have to end it then.” Sokka stated, he said it like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

“I’m sorry we’ll what?” Toph was caught off guard by this. Sokka had always been somewhat brash, but killing a spirit, lowly or not was not an easy feat.

“Don’t make me say it plainly Toph, you know what I mean.”

“I think you might have too, so that I know you’re actually delusional.”

“It’s not a hard concept, we have to kill this spirit friend of yours. Clearly trapping him has done nothing, and I don’t even want to imagine what you meant when you said you were a prototype.”

“You can’t just kill a spirit, Sokka!”

“No, you’re right, I can’t. But we probably can.” Toph could feel in her gut that Sokka was as serious as he’d ever been. And that nothing she was going to say would stop him, he’d merely view it as an obstacle. But she had to try anyways, she had to at least make a better point at how stupid of a plan this was.

“How would we even get there? He’s in a different world.”

“If you sit down with me, I’ll explain it.” More than anything, Toph’s curiosity got the better of her leading her to fold her legs beneath her. Sokka could hear the ruffle of sticks and leaves as she sat. Feeling her presence now closer, he breathed out his plan.

“We wait.”

“We wait?” She was incredibly unimpressed.

“For the faceless men.”

“Sokka, we are trying to avoid things that want to kill us. It’s always kind of been an unspoken rule, ya know?”

“Not this time. I’m sure you already have figured this out, but if the faceless men are coming here from Ko than there has to be an entrance that they’re creating near where they appear.” Toph had to admit to herself, she was impressed he’d figured it out that fast.

“It’s called a time rip.” she replied. Ko had gone on about them for a while, it was how he’d been left in the In-Between by higher spirits. They were naturally occuring weaknesses in myst, to open one, one needed a ghost dagger, and myst bending abilities. She knew that Ko could make them, but he didn’t dare travel to the spirit world again.

“We wait for the men, and then we find the time rip.”

“Well Sokka, I have to say, we’ll definitely be out of danger from Ko if we’re dead.”

“Do you have a better plan?”

“Yeah, I can make one myself.” She stood, pulling the dagger out from her waistband. Now it was just a matter of finding a weak spot. Sokka had stood with her, and followed what he thought was her movements forward.

A loud cracking sound made both of them wrench their heads towards the sound.

“Sokka, please tell me you ran into another tree branch.”

“Not this time.” Toph was about to step in front of Sokka when he grasped her hand that wasn’t holding the dagger. He rushed forward, dragging Toph behind him. Toph’s protest hadn’t even made it past her throat before she was silenced as they rushed past faceless men, dodging trees and flailing limbs alike.

At first she’d been confused as so Sokka’s lead, but as she realised more and more that she could see the outline of the trees and the men, she noted that they were rushing towards the source of sudden light. A time rip, in the midst of two trees, shimmering like a mirage. It was like a wave in mid air, emitting a light so bright that all you could see was a shining white. Toph hadn’t the chance to try and stop Sokka before he’d jumped straight into the split in the world, yanking her with him.


	6. Two Suns

Sokka toppled over first as he flew through the tear into empty space, and then ground materializing beneath him. Toph fell next to him, she likely would have been able to stay on her feet but Sokka hadn’t loosened his grip through the whole ordeal, so they fell together.

Both of them were face down to the ground, so when a bright flash came from behind them they could only assume that it was the tear closing shut, the barriers between worlds healing the wound instantly. 

They lay there in silence for a few moments, listening to the slowing sounds of their panting. Several things flew around in Toph’s mind over their current predicament. Mainly,  _ How in the hell are we going to get back?  _ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Sokka’s voice.

“Sorry what?” She said, snapping out of her haze.

“So this is the place you called the In-Between?”

“Yes, it is.”

“The In-Between.” He said again, sounding out the words for his own ears to process. A foreign world, with a strange name. Not where he’d thought he’d end up tonight, or ever for that matter. 

Toph began to sit up as she looked around to where exactly they were in the In-Between. Tall trees that scraped the sky surrounded them, only making room for a few glittering stars, and larger sparkling objects in the sky to be visible. It was still dark, but not the same kind of dark that hung over them in the forest they had just left. This was a slightly brighter dark, and much more sinister. It outlined shadows, and gave room for whatever was lurking behind it to move unseen.

She could already feel the ache that spread through her shoulder blades, and knew for a fact that she’d scraped her back along the rocky ground they sat on. She drew in slow breaths as she tried to calm herself. A rustling from her left brought her back to attention once again. 

“Sokka we need to move.”

“Huh?” he replied clearly trying to make sense of what stars he could see above him. They were so much closer than the night sky he was used too. It was almost claustrophobia inducing, being suffocated by the sky. 

“We need to move. It’s not safe here.” She said, turning her head towards him as he joined her in sitting upright. His responses were slow right now, which she expected was apart of the shock from being ripped from his world and dropped straight into another.

“Where will we go?”

“I think there is a village not too far from here, if we’re in the forest I think we’re in.”

“They have villages here? There’s other people?” He seems astonished at the thought of other people like himself in a place like this. Full of spirits and mystery.

“Not exactly, they’re people but they’re not like you and me. Look, don’t worry about that now the important thing is that we keep moving.” she sighed “before we get eaten.” she added on under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” 

Toph moved to stand, but found her joints stiffened and her head swimming with the movement upwards. Sokka already standing above her reached out a hand. Reluctantly she took it, and he pulled her to her feet. She stood motionless as the world around her spun, and she felt herself breaking at the waist. 

“Hey, hey, hey!” Sokka said, trying to keep her upright. “Your arm is bleeding again, I don’t think we’re getting anywhere tonight Toph.” She glanced up at him from her bent state, he was right, but she didn’t have to like it. And then without much more warning she fell completely into his grasp. All energy sapped from her legs, and nothing more to keep her willing to stay upright. Sokka held her weight and slowly helped her back to the ground. She briefly felt him tugging on the bandage that had covered her shoulder and arm, but it appeared to be in tatters. Her body felt heavy, but her eyes were wide open, and she was searching for a voice to speak. 

“Start a fire.” she finally managed to say. 

“You know, you really haven’t changed. You’re still just as bossy as I remember.” he said with a chuckle.  _ He’s handling all this quite well. _

There was a sound of tearing fabric, and she felt her shoulder being rapped again, it stung, but at least it would be covered. 

“I’ve spent so long looking for you, we might be lost now but I promise we’ll find a way out.” His words were meant to be reassuring. But all they did was inflict guilt upon her. This was her mess, and her problem and yet here he is trying to comfort her. It’s his world that’s been ripped apart this time, not hers that happened years ago now. So what solace was there for her to grasp from his words?  _ At least now I’m not alone. _ A selfish thought, but one of peace. Toph could hear Sokka walking around where they’d landed, gathering sticks and rocks for a fire. She let her eyes close, and although she didn’t mean to fall asleep, she did.

* * *

Toph opened her eyes slowly, she could feel a weight draped across her, and to her mixed horror and delight it was Sokka’s arm slung across her. She laid still for a moment, gathering her thoughts and considering her next move. She was in the In-Between she knew, Sokka was here with her, and she was injured. She could feel where her back and shoulder had been shredded, it was mostly covered by cloth now.  _ Where had he gotten cloth from again? _ It was then that she also noticed he was shirtless. She could feel the heat rush to her face, and she tried to wiggle her way out from his arm. She was just about free when Sokka flipped over waking up. He began to sit up, Toph shuffled away from him, and met his gaze. 

“Morning.” He said giving a large stretch. 

“Uh morning.” She replied, clearly trying to avert her gaze, unsuccessfully. 

“How’s your shoulder?” He asked getting to his feet. Toph could see the remains of a fire that he must have started last night. 

“It’s um, it’s fine.” she suddenly found herself incapable of speaking properly, and it was more than the morning haze. 

“This village you said we’re going to, do they have a healer? When I bandaged it last night it really didn’t look so good.”

“Um, Yes, they do. Thanks.” She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks again, rising to her feet she tried to breath normally, and exhale the feeling she had growing in her stomach.

“We should get going as soon as you’re feeling ready.” He spoke like he already had a plan. Toph however, was still trying to figure out what they were going to do. Go to the village that was for certain, but after that? Then what? Could she really drag him into this? And if she did, at what cost? 

“Sokka, Wait. There’s some things I think I have to explain.” He stood above her again, just like the night before, offering his hand. This time she took it without hesitation.

“There’s two suns here.”

“What?” she said caught off guard. 

“In the sky, there’s a huge sun, and a tinier one next to it.”

“Oh, oh yeah there is.” And he was right, despite how random of an observation his timing had been. There was the larger sun that was called Soleil and the smaller sun called sole. 

“Listen Sokka, I-”

“I don’t need to know.”

“What?” she was dumbfounded. Here they were, in an entirely different world from his own, and he was offering to help her without an explanation. He was either incredibly devoted or stupid, she wasn’t sure which at this moment. 

“I don’t need to know. Whatever it is, you don’t have to tell me right now.” He sounded as sincere as ever, but why?

“Why don’t you want to know?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t know if you want to talk about it.”

“And why would that be?” An edge of annoyance working its way into her voice. She’d never been one to appreciate being protected, and certainly not when she was being protected from herself. 

“When I was bandaging your back last night, I noticed all of the scars.”

“Oh.”  _ Oh,  _ was right. She often forgot about all the scars she has along her back from her time with Ko. She couldn’t see them, and she didn’t exactly ever make an effort to either. It was another aspect of her life that just reminded her of all the pain she’d endured, and all the pain she’d caused. 

“Look Sokka. I don’t have to give you every detail, but you do need to know some of it. It’s about what we’re going to be up against, I mean, if you still want to keep going.”

“I do.” She searched his eyes for any hint of regret, but she couldn’t find any. 

“Okay.” Breath in, breath out. “I was teaching earthbending, as you know, but I, well I got bored. I had heard about there being trouble in the East of the Earth Bending Kingdom, some weird faceless entity that was supposedly stealing children. I know Aang had heard about it too, but he was too busy with the search for Azula after she escaped. So I volunteered to go, and by volunteer I mean I sort of just left for it. When I got there, it didn’t take me long to find the missing children all huddled in a cave. It was way too easy, and I knew as soon as I let them out it wasn’t right. One little boy refused to leave, and I went back into the cave to try and get him out, but when he turned around he didn’t have a face. And then there were the faceless men and that’s all I really remember about that part. I woke up with no idea where I was. I was suspended so I couldn’t see, and my arms were chained so I couldn’t bend. That was when I met Ko.” She paused to gauge his reaction, but he kept his face still, not shocked, but not happy.

“Ko is a disgraced spirit from the actual spirit world. He was kicked out for his ideas. He wanted to get rid of the human world, make it into an extension of his world, and the way to do that was to create his own army. He was sent into the In-Between, where his power would be lesser, but he still had his plan. Ko steals faces, identities, he blinds people from the truth, and takes away their eyes if you’re catching onto a trend here.” She paused again, and the slightest amount of realization passed over his face.

“Ko, is the one who gave me back my site. Uninvited I might add. He had me chained up in his stupid cave of experiments for a long time. And once told me I was free to go, I didn’t. I thought about it, but I’d been gone for so long, and changed so much. I was barely able to myst bend, and everything about my life appeared to be a lie, so I stayed.” Pain flashed over Sokka’s face. She pressed on.

“I stayed to learn, and because Ko runs most of this half of the In-Between, he’s a sort of King. And I, well, I am technically the princess. “

“You’re what?” That had finally pushed him over, and his reaction was that of shock and hurt.

“Ko is my father. My parents paid out a lot of money for someone to take me away when the worlds cross over so that they could have this incredibly strong child to run their estate and as a political weapon. What they didn’t realize was that when they took me from my world, this world, I would eventually go blind. It was part of the reason that they were so protective over me, because they lived in fear of the faceless men coming to retrieve me.”

“Your mother?”

“Who knows. A human maybe? All I know was that she had earth based powers. That’s why I could earth bend so well.”

“But now you can’t?”

“No, myst bending strips you of all other powers. It comes along with the process.”

“The process.” He repeated, trying to process everything.

“It’s torture, not all of it, but most of it, to produce a strong enough vessel for myst bending.” Sokka’s face fell into disappointment, but not in her, for her. 

“I wasn’t the first he’d tried his methods on. And I don’t think I’m the last.”

“So you want to stop him.”

“In short, yes. I do now that we’re here. He’s somewhat stopped at the moment, but I’d like to put a more permanent end to his plan since he’s clearly still pulling the strings with the faceless henchmen of his.”

“What do you mean you somewhat stopped him?”

“When I actually did leave, I trapped him in his cave under the ocean. He lives in a bound pocket of air far beneath the surface. I couldn’t kill him Sokka, I tried really, but I just-” He cut her off by wrapping an arm around her, yanking her to his chest. She blushed again, but instead of a building feeling, she found comfort.

“I promise I will help you, and Ko won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore.”

She almost thought she’d be mad at that, but instead she felt relief. They would stop him, and maybe just maybe all the pain that surrounded her would stop. 

She pulled away from him, gathering their surroundings in the daylight. 

“The village is east of here, if we leave now we should be there by sunset...I think.”

“You think?” He said incredulously. “Toph you better be sure, I’m not following you through the dark again just so I can fall on my ass.”

“You don’t need to follow me in the dark to do that, you do it just fine on your own in daylight.” She smirked at him, and he smiled back. And for the first time in a long time, Toph had a feeling of peace, however short lived it would be.


	7. Ghosts

The two suns had quickly lost their novelty for Sokka. The beauty of the Suns became heavily outweighed by their scorching rays of heat. They’d barely gathered themselves and begun their trek to possible civilization before the heat had begun scorching the Earth. 

The air felt similar to the Fire Nation, hot and dry as it seeped into Sokka’s lungs. He wondered how Toph was feeling, if it was uncomfortable for him it had to be twice as uncomfortable for the person who was currently injured and hadn’t had a good night’s rest since she was a child. Yet she carried herself without hesitation, the only indication of discomfort were the beads of sweat forming along her brow. 

He wanted to think of something clever to say to her, something that would make her feel like she had when he’d wrapped his arms around her this morning. But his mind fell blank for for comfort. Instead he swam through thoughts of concern, over what had happened to Toph, the pain she must have been in both mentally and physically, over himself and how he could possibly help her. 

He would have been lying to himself if he didn’t admit that he was in way over his head, this was a world of magic and spirits, when he felt that he barely belonged in the regular world of bending. But this was for Toph, one of his oldest friends, and someone he had long harbored complicated feelings for. This was the person that he’d left Suki over. A painful memory flashed through his mind, as he tried to organize his thoughts.

“I can’t do this anymore! I feel like I’m living with a ghost.” Suki’s sobs could probably be heard by the neighbours, but they’d long since abandoned any attempt of keeping this argument private. 

“How can you tell me to stop looking for her? She was my friend! My friend!” 

“Nobody else is looking for her! Not anymore, not Aang, not Katara, and not Zukko. So why are you?”

“Because  _ nobody else is looking for her _ ! I’m all she has!”

“No, Sokka. You’re all I have.” Suki’s argument had started to falter, and she could feel her resolve crumbling beneath her. She understood his pain, but he seemed to disregard her own. Sokka hung his head, face heated in frustration that only he seemed to grasp. 

Suki opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it quickly, glancing at the room they were in. There they stood at odds in their living room, the heart of their home. They had their friends over here for celebrations, for losses, tears of sadness and joy had been shed here. This was the center of the home they had built together over the years that their adulthood had begun. 

They’d only ever known each other in the special way that couples do. Both of them could find each other in this room, between the cushions of the couch, in the lines of the wall, the panes of the windows, every inch of this space was a manifestation of their presence together. And today, in this moment, Suki found it absolutely suffocating. 

“Have you considered that maybe she just doesn’t want to be found?”

“No, never.” Sokka glared at her, he wasn’t angry though, just incredibly hurt. Maybe Suki was right, maybe he was chasing a ghost. But he didn’t care, he wanted to find that ghost. Suki sensed the shift in his decision, and relented, contracting into herself, and retreating from the space once woven into her being.

“I lied to you Sokka, You’re not all I have because I don’t have you. Not anymore. I hope that ghost doesn’t disappoint you.”

That had been the last thing Suki had said directly to him, she left the house and stayed away until Sokka left for a business trip. When he returned he found that Suki had removed herself from the home in every way possible, it was like she had never been there. And yet no matter how hard he had tried, he could not erase the memories he had of her there. 

Not too long after he had moved, opting for a smaller townhouse closer to Aang and Katara’s home. Not that he spent much time there, he mostly lived within the bounds of his office and visiting other nations for political reasons, or following up leads on where Toph might have been. 

After all of that, he couldn’t possibly abandon her now. He’d just found her, and he would cling to her for as long as it took to get her back home, back home where she would be safe. 

The pain of his memory of Suki must have shown on his face, because Toph inhaled a deep breath before speaking in a concerned tone.

“You know Sokka, if you’ve changed your mind you can stay at the village. You don’t have to do this, nobody is asking you to.” She looked at the ground, this was one of the moments she regretted being able to see. 

She didn’t want to meet Sokka’s eyes, she hated watching rejection flash across people’s faces. The drop in their voices had always been bad enough for her, but to watch their faces crumple as well was a special kind of torture. 

“What? No, no, Toph, I’m not leaving you. I want to help.”

“You realize this isn’t just about me? This is so much bigger than that, I can’t ask you to help a world you’re not even a part of.”

Sokka stopped walking, wrapping a hand around her wrist. Toph came to a halt as well, suddenly finding bravery behind her words she met his eyes. 

“I’ve known you for the better part of my life, even when you weren’t there, you still had an influence on me--” She cut him off. 

“I’m sorry about Suki.”

“What?” he dropped her wrist, stunned.

“I don’t know what happened between you and her, but you looked so happy with her at the cafe, and now you just look like you’re in pain half the time in thought.”

Sokka reached for her wrist again, enfolding it in his own palm.

“Toph, that’s not on you. You know that right? I made that choice. And I am making this one too, to stay here and help you.” he squeezed her hand, trying to instill his word into her skin. He really was here for her, and he would do whatever it took.

Toph’s cheeks flushed red, and she looked at the ground again. Sweet words and eye contact were still new to her, and the fact that her eyes had to choose something to focus on during hearing all that made her feel incredibly vulnerable. She hated feeling exposed, although she had to admit that hate was marginally less when it was Sokka who she was exposed to. 

“Toph? Are you too hot? Your face is really red.” He looked at her with concern. She flashed her head up in embarrassment, as she took her hand back from him and turned to keep walking.

“I-What, no. I’m just fine.”

The shadows began to grow around the trees as they walked, the forest alive with creatures now. Finally awake after a long night’s slumber. Birds chirped, and creeks trickled. It took all of their will power combined not to just spend the day with their feet in the cool water of a babbling brook. But they progressed, with an odd lack of misadventure. It was short lived. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


As the day wore on it became increasingly clear that Toph’s directional skills were questionable at best. Sokka had been badgering her for about an hour now over if they were going the right direction, and Toph had been giving him short one word answers all meaning the same thing,  _ no _ . 

“This is ridiculous, there has to be a better way than wandering aimlessly through this forest.”

“Unless  _ you _ suddenly have a map, then no there is not a better way.” Toph huffed at the ground angrily. The Suns were blazing in heat now and Sokka had removed his shirt again, so naturally, Toph was finding it very difficult to make eye contact with him. The tall trees were not providing nearly enough shade to make their walk anywhere near the realm of pleasant, and the bugs that had come out for the day were adding to the frustration. It had all become a recipe for annoyance between the two, and finally came to a head when they passed the same stream for a third time. 

“That is it. I’m not going any further until we figure out a plan.” Sokka came to a sputtering halt, while Toph tried to take a few more steps. 

“Fine, whatever.” She was too tired and hot to argue, and for what it was worth, he was right they needed a plan because her initial idea of we’ll just wander and come across it was not working out. 

Without much warning, although Toph should have guessed as much, Sokka closed the gap between them and moved behind Toph to the creek, where he promptly laid himself flat into the stream. 

“What are you doing?” Toph asked dumbfounded.

“Cooling off, you should try it.” he responded flatly. They had both definitely had enough of the heat. Toph stared at him as he laid there, water streaming over tan skin, pooling in the lines between the muscles that outlined his form. The water was beginning to edge towards a very particular muscle line that pointed down like a rather large arrow. Her eyes followed it only briefly, but apparently it was enough for Sokka to notice.

“Don’t objectify me.” He snorted, it was meant to be a joke, but by the sudden reddening of Toph’s already flushed face, and her sputtering for words he had discovered that he may have misjudged her actual intentions.  _ So, she had been looking _ .

“I, I-uh. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She crossed her arms, and stared over her shoulder indignantly. It was then another voice joined the mix.

“I believe, and correct me if I am wrong, but he was suggesting you were eyeing him up for purposes other than scientific.”

“What the hell?” Both Toph and Sokka said in unison, Sokka bolting upright in the stream, and Toph snapping her head back to attention. There before them was a rather whispy looking old woman. She almost appeared human, until you noticed the sun glinting straight through her. 

“I could ask you the same thing. Couple of mortals wanderin around the Timeless Forest. Pretty stupid if ya ask me.” She moved closer to them, dancing forward as if she were being pulled by a gust of wind, despite the dead air around them. 

“What? Who?” Sokka sputtered, before Toph cut him off.

“Did you just say the Timeless Forest?”

“I did. The name’s Maude. And you might be?”

Toph began shifting back and forth on her feet, and Sokka didn’t miss the anxious look that had suddenly overtaken her. It was clear this woman was not human, but if the past few days had meant anything it was that the threats from this world attacked first and asked questions later. 

“I’m So-”

“No! Don’t tell her your name!” Toph cried, she looked even redder than she had from embarrassment. Now it was fear, and that in turn scared Sokka. “The Timeless Forest is a place for the dead. If they know your name, they own you and you’ll end up here too.”

“Oh no you won’t, that’s a silly old wives tale at best.” The old ghost cooed, inching closer. This was not lost on Sokka, as he removed himself from the stream, moving in between Toph and the Maude.

“And just why would we trust you?” He demanded, feeling a sudden surge of confidence, and the need to protect Toph. He half expected her to push him away, or tell him she could handle it, but instead she seemed petrified to her spot.

“I mean you no harm.” She responded, waving her translucent hands in front of her. She sounded honest, but Sokka wondered how one would even begin to tell if a ghost was lying. “Honest, I don’t mean you any harm. Keep your names. But I would like to know why you are bathing in my creek.”

“We mean no disrespect, we, well, we’re lost” he admitted hesitantly. Toph still seemed frozen at his side, unwilling to move. In fact, Sokka noticed she was practically cowering against him now, refusing to make eye contact. 

“Well that’s not good then is it.” 

Both Sokka and Toph felt concern wash over them, were they about to find out the real dangers of this forest? Toph peered up at the ghost, fear written on her face as Sokka stood stiff as a stone. In all his years, and battles he had yet to face off with the undead. 

“Oh no! I meant that you’re lost! It’s a creek, bath in it if you want.” Maude responded apologetically. She shook her head casing out rays of shimmering sunshine with cascades of silver hair. Her ancient eyes finally meeting Toph’s. She paused for a moment, as Toph tucked her head away again. 

“Ah, you’re Ko’s daughter. I’m surprised to see you here, I thought your last encounter with the seer would’ve steered you far from these woods.”

“The seer?” Sokka repeated after her. A sudden loud cracking sound from behind them ended their conversation prematurely. It sounded as if someone, or rather something was shattering rocks. 

“It’s not safe here, best to come with me.” Sokka moved forward, but Toph stayed frozen. “Of course if you’d rather be lunch for whatever that is.”

“I, I can take it.” Toph’s voice quivered as she spoke. It pained Sokka to see her so frightened, and he knew that whatever the Seer had done to her must have been horrific for her to be so unwilling, but their options were dwindling and the Seer seemed like a problem that could be put off. Whatever was cracking rocks like watermelon, more likely could not. 

Sokka met her eyes, and wordlessly extended his hand. He’d trusted her this far, now it was her turn. The air hung dead for a moment before she reached her hand in return, and they began to follow the old ghost.


End file.
